VIDEO - Patients speak out to dispel myths and to highlight range of services at hospice

Managers at St Barnabas Lincolnshire Hospice have released a seven-minute video that challenges the preconceptions of hospice care and highlights how their day therapy services can help people who are living with a life-limiting illness.

In the film patients talk openly to camera about their initial fears of the word hospice and how attending Day Therapy has allowed them to better live with their conditions.

Jo Markham, a Day Therapy patient, describes how St Barnabas has helped to support her.

Jo said: “It’s helped me to get out much more and to live, instead of just existing, which is what I was doing.”

Day Therapy at St Barnabas Lincolnshire Hospice offers patients a range of clinical, emotional and spiritual support services in a friendly and relaxed atmosphere. Over the past 12 months the charity has cared for more than 1,600 patients at one of their eight day therapy centres across the county.

Nicky Ingall, General Manager for St Barnabas Lincolnshire Hospice, said: “This video is an important tool for providing a window into the often very private world of palliative care. We are hoping this film will reach out to people who may be able to benefit from our care and services.

“It is wonderful to be able to hear first hand from our patients about how hospice care has helped them to live with their individual conditions. Each of them reiterates an important message that hospice care is not just care at the very end of life.”

Patients at day therapy can benefit from a number of comprehensive services and therapies including reiki, arts and crafts and physiotherapy.

During an Indian head massage, day therapy patient Helga Pennelegion, talks candidly about her planned mastectomy and the benefits of her visits to day therapy.

Helga said: “All I can tell you is that it releases tension and it gives me a better day.”

Laura Williams, a final-year student at the University of Lincoln, produced the film as part of an academic project.

Laura said: “The time I spent filming was a learning experience for me. I had many preconceptions about hospice care that weren’t true. It was a fantastic experience to hear all the positive things that patients had to say about day therapy, and it truly was a pleasure to film.”

There are two versions of the video available to view on YouTube. The seven-minute version at: https://youtu.be/uB8vEEipIvY and the full-length version at: https://youtu.be/P9ZfreExxmk